


I'll see you in a minute

by Katefkndoes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Endgame, F/M, Gen, Heavy on the spoiler warning, I am still so bloody angry., Like don't even look at this if you haven't seen the film., M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Sort of a fix it, Spoilers, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 15:37:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18607462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katefkndoes/pseuds/Katefkndoes
Summary: Heavy on the spoilers for Endgame.*SPOILERS*Notes at the end of the fic.Things aren’t quite what they seem at the end. This is what follows.





	I'll see you in a minute

“I’ll see you in a minute.”  Six words, seven syllables that had haunted Steve for so long after he heard them that by the time he actually came to hear them again it was almost a relief.

He may have taken the long road but he was going to make things right.

The thing about time travel was that your life rapidly became extremely unpredictable.  Whether it be because you finally got to have that dance you had been craving so badly, but you never thought would be possible with the love of your life, or you got something with a touch more longevity.  What you considered possible before time travel was one thing, and your new reality became something out of the pages of a sci-fi novel.

The plan was a simple one, but required precise timing and a whole lot of help from someone much better with technology than him.  Which, seventy years ago would have been anyone with a laptop, and now took on a whole new level of unfathomability. (And really, if someone had told him back before the Serum that at some point he’d end up fighting with a Racoon and talking tree from space he would have assumed _they_ were crazy.  So improved technology was the least of the problems one faced when dealing with time travel.)

So, he watched, concealed by a box of equipment as his team disappeared.  He had just a matter of seconds to reach the platform and go on his own journey, one that he had been waiting over twenty years to make – or seventy depending on which way you looked at it – or maybe a hundred, he really wasn’t sure anymore.  But he was as prepared as he could ever be, and this was his chance to get that second chance.

To live another life with the woman he loved.

***

It had been a long road for him to get to that point.  Long enough for him to live the life he had always wanted with the woman he was destined to marry and watch grow old. Two beautiful children, seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren thus far. Watching his family grow and expand even as his hands were tied to amend the mistakes he knew the world was going to make, over and over again.  

Frequently, he pondered what kind of a world they were inheriting.

To some it might have been torture, but when he made the decision to go back he had known what he was signing up for.  It was right, and after saving the galaxy he felt that he had earned being selfish for once in his life. The decision was hard, no matter what happened he knew that he couldn’t interfere with the big events. Even if Bruce said that it couldn’t change his future, he understood enough to know that creating another reality was against the interests of the rest of the universe - in the long run.

And really, it wasn’t like he had just been sitting around twiddling his thumbs and playing the dutiful husband and father.  He had known what he was for a long time before he went back, and that became more and more apparent as the years went on. So while he had to be careful about where he intervened, his eidetic memory meant that he understood when and where he could be the most use to guide the course of history - to make sure this reality remained unchanged.

The first test came when he was given a chance to check on Natasha and Bucky at the same time.  Peggy had sent him on the reconnaissance mission (without realising what she was asking of him) and fifty years of marriage had taught him he lived an easier life if he followed her instructions.  But it was one thing to make sure a time line remained unchanged and another when he would have to see the two people he loved most - outside his family - brainwashed and under Hydra control. From his vantage point on the roof opposite, he watched as they sparred brutally with each other, both set on winning, and neither really human.  He could save them both in an instant, but they had their own journey and they needed to make it in their own time.  He understood enough to know that it their journeys could not be altered.

“I’ve had better looks.”  The voice behind him said softly, and maybe his age was getting to him because he hadn’t heard anyone approach.  For a long moment, he remained frozen in position, wondering whether he had imagined her soft voice. “You can turn around Steve.”  She said, keeping her voice calm and taking a couple of steps closer, making sure her footsteps could be heard. An attempt to comfort him, he thought.

Perhaps this was madness, given all he had been through he wouldn’t have been surprised.  He had lived two lives, separated by ten of years, and the difficulties of that were beginning to weigh heavily on his soul.  However, he slowly drew his eyes from the still-grappling figures of his former best friends, and turned to look into the face of a memory.

“Nat…” he let out a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding.  She smiled at him, and looked up at him from under her eyelashes. Her long red hair tipped with blond just how he remembered it, and her face the picture of the last time he saw her.

“Hey, soldier.”  She said, coyly. “Long time no see.  Gotta say, you look really good for a guy pushing two hundred.”   _The perils of time travel,_ Steve’s internal monologue supplied.  While fifty years of marriage had seen Peggy turn into an old woman before his eyes, he still barely looked in his mid thirties.  Actual words, however, failed him. “Then again, I look fantastic for someone who should have died at the bottom of a pit.” _Fucking time travel,_ Steve thought.  “When you told me you’d been to see me I can’t pretend I wasn’t flattered.  I needed to repay the favour.” And really, Steve’s head was starting to hurt.

“Time travel?”  Steve finally managed to find his voice, shaking his head. Whenever he tried to think about it he was left with a headache that even the serum couldn’t shake.

“How else are we both stood here having this conversation, when you’re supposed to be frozen in the artic and I’m down there kicking Bucky’s ass?”  She arched an eyebrow, and bit back a small smile.

“I’m not going to leave them.”  He said flatly. James and Sarah were both over forty, but that didn’t stop them being his children.  Natasha looked at him, a slight smile in her eyes. She understood his pain, that was obvious from her face.

“You don’t have to.  What you have to do comes later – at the end.”  He had listened as she had explained the plan, his ears not quite believing it.  “Understood?” She asked, after a long and detailed explanation of what had to happen to maintain the timeline and make sure that Thanos was still defeated.  He raised his eyebrows in disappointment, and she smiled. “I know… but I have to check.” Years of working together had taught them both that other people often missed the subtleties of their plans.

“Yeah, I guess it’s kind of important. Fate of the world and all that.”  He shrugged. Saving the world seemed like an easy mission compared to what had already happened… or was going to happen.  He generally tried not to think about it too much.

“I know it doesn’t seem fair, to give you this life and then…”

“I knew it was coming.”  He admitted finally. They had known, of course, that he wasn’t ageing normally, but when Peggy started to receive disappointed looks from the fellow parents when they attended James’ first High School parent/teacher conference, they both concluded that things needed to change.  By the time Sarah gave them their first grandchild, Steve was mistaken for a dotting uncle which was a title he kept up with. And it was hard - really hard - to take that step back from his family, to watch them grow and thrive from a distance. But he knew it was best for them and that it would keep them safe.  He told himself that as long as he had Peggy then everything was okay. (But the downside of time travel was that he knew when that particular part of his life ended as well). “I’ve lived my life.”

“It still doesn’t make it fair.”  Natasha sighed.

“It’s more than I could ever have hoped.”  Natasha nodded once, a small smile on her lips.  He remembered her smiling at him life that before, right before the end when he had been looked at his old compass, at the picture of the woman he would marry.  A lifetime ago.

“Always the optimist.”  She acknowledged, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek, before stepping back to sync up her suit.

“Guess I’ll see you soon.”

“Please don’t miss.”  She replied before she disappeared in front of him.

_The individual known as the Black Widow will be a valuable asset if she can be convinced to defect.  Suggest Barton for the assignment to bring her in._  Read his mission report.

He could do this.

***

Fifteen years passed quicker than they had any right to.  Chaos and discord began to spread through the globe once more and he saw to it that the timeline was unchanged.  He watched as thousands died in a needless show of power, as thousands more lost their lives in an ill-conceived war.  All the while, he was cursed with the knowledge of what was to come. He watched as Tony was kidnapped and Iron Man was born, and Peggy had looked at him with sadness in her eyes, almost knowing what was going to happen.  

He watched as his son and daughter’s faces began to display the signs of old age and his own face remained resolutely youthful. He watched as Peggy began to lose some of her spark, began to succumb to the disease he knew she always would – but still he couldn’t leave her.  The love he had for her was timeless and he wanted to be selfish a little while longer.

One night, as they sat eating their dinner, she looked at him – her eyes as clear as the day they met and he knew what she was going to say.  She placed her increasingly frail hand on his and offered him a heartbreaking smile. He fought to control the swell of emotion that surged through his brain, stronger than the serum that had made his life so strange.

“It’s time, my love.”  Her words caused the floor to fall out of the bottom of his world.

“We still have time,” he said, his heart aching.  Sixty plus years of marriage had done nothing to diminish the affection he held for her.  Even approaching ninety he still loved her as much as he did when she was twenty-five. She smiled, knowingly.

“Always so dramatic.”  He laughed despite himself.  “I’ve lived my life… and I hope I’ve given you enough love to last _your_ lifetime.”  Steve felt the tears forming in his eyes as he nodded.  “But I- ” she fumbled uncharacteristically, “I don’t know my own mind… and I’m not sure how much longer I can be trusted to keep this secret.”  Her voice cracked with emotion and Steve finally understood. He had burdened her with a secret for years – one that she couldn’t share with anyone but that she believed was worth it.  And now she was letting him know that he needed to share the burden.  That it was her time for peace and for him… that meant he needed to leave.

“God Peg…” he held her hand, stroking her wedding band, “I…”

“I know, Steve.”  She always understood him – better than he understood himself most of the time.  

They shared one last, perfect day together and then he left for good.

***

The next decade passed in a haze. Disaster after disaster which he couldn’t stop. The Chitari came and went, Hydra were finally expunged from SHIELD, Ultron was defeated… all that followed made his soul ache. He watched from the sidelines as Peggy died and Avengers crumbled. He watched as Sarah succumbed to a cancer that had been descimating her body unchecked for months before it was found.  And took the time to thank God that Peggy had gone before she could see what happened to their beautiful baby girl.

And still he waited.

He was Captain America and he had a job to do.

There was even a close call with his past self while he was helping Earthquake victims in Japan. He had been so focused on doing what he could that he had completely forgotten that he had already been there.  Right up until he caught sight of a familiar head of red hair marching alongside that ragged mess of hair he had once considered a disguise.

Weeks later he was in bed in a shitty motel outside of Boise, staring at the ceiling, remembering the time eighty years ago - or six months depending on your position in the timeline - when he had stayed in the same place. They had been on the run, but at least he’d had Sam and Nat to keep him focused. It had been so long that he couldn’t quite remember the sound of Sam’s laugh - maybe he was finally getting old.  He felt the hairs on his arm stand up and a weight dropped onto the bed.

“He’s expecting you, you know.” Came an achingly familiar voice. He sat up and opened his eyes to find Nat peering at him through the darkness.

“Hi Steve, how have the last twenty or so years been for you?” He said, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears. And really, in this day and age of computers and self-service, self-check-in and his desire to be anyone other than himself, when was the last time he had spoken in his own voice? “That sounded resentful, I’m sorry.” He apologised.  

“It’s…” she bit her lip, “I just saw you.” She moved across the bed and touched her hand to his face. He leaned into the touch without thinking.  It had been almost ten years since someone had touched him like that.

“Time travel.” He muttered and she smiled ruefully. “You here with a mission?”  He added, his eyes drinking in her visage.

“Sort of.” She shrugged, taking his hand in hers. “Go and see Bucky.” She ordered and he almost laughed.

He had considered it, obviously. He knew where Bucky was, he knew how to get into Wakanda and he looked pretty much the same as he did back then anyway. He’d been a few times, standing outside the dome and wondering whether his presence would be detected, whether Shuri’s technology would pick up that he wasn’t the Steve Rogers of 2017. It just hadn’t felt like it was worth the risk. Not when he was so close to the end of his journey.

“I didn’t know that I could.” He said simply.

“Just this once.” She said. “And you should get some sleep.” She added, bringing her hand to his face once more and tracing the bags that even the serum couldn’t overcome.  Gently, she pushed him back into the bed, pulled the blanket up and rested her head on his chest. His heart ached, remembering all too clearly the nights when Peggy had done the same.  She hummed softly under her breath, and he felt her heartbeat, a steady staccato when he laid his hand on top of her.

She was gone when he woke up in the morning but his heart felt lighter than in had done in months.

***

“Steve?” Bucky said as he opened the door. Steve couldn’t help himself he immediately drew the other man on for a protracted hug. “Hey pal, it’s only been a month.”

“I know Buck… it’s just you look so much better.” He said blinking back tears in his eyes. Had it really been seventy years since he had spoken to his best friend? How was that possible. He drew the other man on for another hug, which was reciprocated with a calming hand stoking down his back.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Bucky said as they pulled back.  It wasn’t uncommon for the older (younger?) man to notice when things were bothering him, and he guessed he hadn’t been especially subtle, but he had been alone for so long that it was just nice to enjoy the touch of another person.  He merely smiled slowly, trying to savour every moment.

“Nothing, Buck.”  He replied, not even believing his own voice.  Judging by the look on his face Bucky hadn’t either, but he knew better than to press the issue.  

“Well, come in, soups up.”  He said with a shrug and stepped out of the doorway.  Bucky’s hut was sparsely decorated and rustic. Far removed from the technology of the city, he was heating his food on a metal pot hung which over an open fire.  There was something incredibly relaxing about the sound of the wood crackling in the flames, and the hut smelled of spices mixed with the smoke that the chimney couldn’t remove.  He remembered the hut clearly from their previous encounters but he had never really absorbed just how peaceful it was. It was a true sanctuary, completely contained and away from the outside world.

True to his word, Bucky handed him a bowl of soup as soon as he sat down and then joined him on the small couch, their legs touching.  Just like they had done back in Brooklyn, before either of them were remade. They ate in silence. These moments were so rare that Steve wanted to remember every detail and he couldn’t trust his voice not to betray the myriad of emotions he was suffering.  When they had both finished, Bucky wordlessly took the bowls and washed them in the small sink.

“I guess this is the first visit.”  The words broke through the silence and every muscle in Steve’s body tensed as Bucky leaned back against the sink.  “You don’t need to look so worried, Stevie.” He said, with a small smile on his face.

“I don’t know what you mean?”  He said. And _boy,_ did he need to work on his lying voice.

“I think you do.” He walking back over to the couch and reclaiming his spot.  “If you were out there defending the world, who do you think helped me?” He said gently, and Steve blinked in understanding.

“Buck, I…” He started.

“Stevie, I know it seems hard, but trust me when I say you’ll get through this.  This was how it was always meant to be… or at least in this reality. I don’t know… this is way above my paygrade, usually you explain to me.”  He looked down at where his one remaining hand was resting on Steve’s knee.

“Fuckin’ time travel.”  Steve muttered.

“Yeah, pal but I’m with you till the end of the line.”  He said, with a small smile on his lips.

“Wherever that is.”

“Whenever that is.”  Bucky corrected.

***

That brief time with Bucky helped.  But Steve was still forced to watch helplessly when the world was destroyed by Thanos.  Knowing that it had to happen didn’t make it any better, and didn’t make it feel like less of a failure.  He watched as a little girl was left alone as her father literally disintegrated before her eyes and pulled a man out of a car which had been hit by a truck suddenly without a driver.  And seeing the little stories first hand was almost worse than watching it happen on a large scale. He could sense the pain in the air everywhere he walked, and he had no Avengers compound to shield him.

The world moved on slowly, not knowing what had happened.  Never really understanding what had happened to them. And the hours turned into days.  The days into weeks. Weeks to months and months to years. Some people moved on – even if it was only in insignificant ways – but many others still walked around with haunted looks on their faces.  A few completely lost heart and eventually gave their lives. And, as humans are wont to do, some of them saw it as an excuse for profit. Organised crime reached an unpredicted high as governments struggled to overcome growing demands and reduced support.

In some ways this part was easier.  Every day a new mission. He didn’t have to question what he was doing.  He wasn’t left with much time to wonder what happened to his own family, whether they were safe.  

He didn’t allow himself time to check.

Research. Fight. Defeat. Repeat.

There was no one on this earth who could go toe to toe with him on his best day, and it was worrisome as much as it was invigorating.  He was on the edge, the very brink of humanity. Always on the outside looking in. In his darkest moments he wondered whether he had dreamt up the whole thing.  A defence mechanism his brain had created to try and survive. He wondered at his own madness.

He was so strong and so fast that he couldn’t be stopped by normal men.  A power that seemed to grow as the years went past - his body reflexively picking up new skills and his muscles generating more strength than ever before.  When he looked in the mirror he saw the shadow of the man he had been, hardened by age, terrified of what he might become.

No one from this time knew to stop him.  

His rest came uneasily and more nights than he could remember where spent pacing the floors of whatever room he had taken for the night.  He considered death. Was he above that now? Some sort of fixed event that couldn’t be changed?

In the aftermath of a yet another fight - one that he would always win - he heard and unfamiliar voice.

“I had almost forgotten how good my ass looked.”  The voice said with a hint of amusement.

An old man stood in front of him.

An old man with his eyes.

“Aren’t you going to repay the compliment?”  He said with a chuckle. “No, I guess you wouldn’t.”  He added after a beat, looking down at himself.

“I don’t understand.”  He replied, drinking in the lines on the man’s face, the grey in his hair.  The signs of a life he lived written all over someone else’s face.

“Age finds all of us, eventually.”  Steve stumbled to the ground. His was some never ending cycle where he lived through tens of lifetimes, watching everyone he loved die over and over again.  It was enough to turn his stomach, and he emptied its pitiful contents on to the ground where his older self’s feet had been moments before. “Peggy was right, we were always so dramatic.”  He looked up at his older self, who was smiling. A oddly happy smile.

“Why are you here?”  He replied, pulling himself to his feet to stand eye to eye with himself.

“Because you need to understand how lucky you are.  You have a whole other life in front of you – no one else has ever had that.  So you need to get your head out of that pretty little ass of yours and earn it.” He admonished.  “Because there are a lot of people relying on you, soldier.” The voice was older, but he recognised his own Captain America tone.

“Why do we always have to fight?”  He asked, his voice sounding small, pitiful and weak.

“Because you have to _earn_ your gifts.  So you need to stop moping and you need to fight for her…”

“Peggy’s gone.”  He replied, wondering why the world had not let him became this man with the only women he would ever love.  His older self, looked at him. They shared an understanding.

“She died warm in her bed.  Surrounded by our family and she was happy… so happy that we moved on.”  The old man smiled, the mist of tears clouding his eyes slightly. And Steve choked on his own sob of emotion.  He would see Peggy again, he would get to talk to her one last time. “So you need to fight for that chance, you need to fight for _her_ so that _she_ can save us.”  

“I…”

“Don’t fight it, you already know.  You can’t mourn forever.” Steve nodded once, he understood what needed to be done.  He realised in that moment his future, why he had made this journey. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a visit to make so that this whole thing works.”  He gestured to the round package resting against a nearby wall. “And you’ll be needing this.” He handed him another vial of Pym Particles and disappeared into the quantum realm.

But it was enough.  Enough to see him through to the end of this.

For her.

***

He arrived just in time to make the switch pulling her out of the air as Clint turned his head and sending the life model decoy down to solidify the illusion.   The moment she fell into his arms, he understood that this was always how it was meant to be. If he believed in destiny he might have said this was his. It was inevitable.

He clutched her to his chest as they crashed back onto the platform.

She fit so well in his arms, and he just wanted to live in that moment forever.  To savour the success that he had been waiting for, for so long.

“Steve…” she said, uncertainly, blinking up at him through the tears.  Finally, when he looked at his future it was no longer a void.

“It worked.”  He said, breathing heavily and leaning up to rest his head on her forehead.  But it wasn’t enough. It could never be enough. Without giving himself time to think about it, he finally allowed himself to kiss her.  She complied easily her hands gripping his arms as though she though he might vanish from under her. Eventually he pulled back, her lips were swollen and her eyes were red but she looked happy.  “I’m not the same man I was.” He confessed, feeling the weight of expectation. It had been so long since he felt it that it was almost a foreign concept. He wasn’t the man she had seen a minute before - a hundred years - but she had already saved him.

“It doesn’t matter.”  She said softly, biting her lip and gracing his face with the soft caress of her finger. “It’s always been you.”  She nodded through the tears and he let out a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding.

“Well this is awkward.”  Sam muttered from his place behind the safety line of the platform.  And Steve felt the tears well in his own eyes. “I can’t believe you got this to work.”  The comment was directed at Bucky who was stood at the controls.

“Well, I had some help.”  Bucky replied, moved his flesh and blood arm through the short cropped spikes of his head.  Steve took a moment to remember the image, his friend looking momentarily like the man who had fallen off the train too many years ago to count.  The brunet offered Steve a small smile and, in one look, conveyed a thousand unsaid words. They were in this together, whatever weird and frankly messed up time loop they had created to do it.  In the past, present and future they were bonded together, one could not exist without the other.

“Too bad it took you so long.”  Sam added, walking to the platform to offer Natasha a hand up and bringing her in for hug which might have seemed strange and out of character at some point.  But time was relative, these days.

“We won?”  She asked, hesitatingly.  It had all started so long ago that Steve had forgotten this Natasha hadn’t seen either of the two men in years.   “How – how long.” She was almost scared to ask and Steve curled his arm around her shoulder in understanding.

“Almost two years but we won.”  Bucky admitted, ripping off the bandage.  Steve wasn’t sure what he expected, but Natasha merely nodded accepting the victory despite the loss.  Her aura radiated a calm that it had not since before the snap - the original snap - and Steve was glad that she had found peace in that. “Except, one of us came the very long way.” Bucky nodded at Steve and Natasha turned to him, her face registering the handful of years he had aged and understanding what that meant for him.  He saw the brief moment of content shatter across her face and splinter into devastation.

“It doesn’t matter.”  He said as they came together, the four of them reunited.  Finally in the right time and space. “I’m right where I’m meant to be.”  He pulled Bucky to his one side, and kissed the top of Natasha head.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The end of this film was unnecessary and ruined some of the best characters from the MCU. Bucky and Sam were completely done over. All of Peggy’s growth and badassery were wiped out. Steve’s entire development over the course of the movies was completely ignored. (Which wouldn’t be so annoying if he wasn’t the only character whose main stories were written by the same people). And it didn’t even make sense because he wasn’t the right age for ant of the scenarios to make sense when he came back old.
> 
> So I wrote this because I wanted to make it hurt a little bit. And basically I like to imagine there is an AU where these 4 are still off doing their things with a bit of time travel wrapped up in there.


End file.
